The Russian Sleep Experiment of 1945
The Soviet Union always followed a culture of secrecy to protect the state’s insane doings. From crazy experiments at Lab 1 of poisoning prisoners of the war to the worst nuclear disaster in history at Chernobyl. The USSR hid it all as long as it could. This fact has given rise to conspiracies and speculation about the state.
The most infamous experiment of the USSR is The Russian sleep experiment of the 1940s. Which some people seem to believe is just another speculation. Well, I leave that up to you.
The Objective
The objective of the experiment was simple, create a gas that could allow soldiers to be able to stay awake and alert for much longer than the human body allows.
Almost all superpowers around the world are conducting research and trials with drugs that could “sustain” a soldier’s “pre-deprivation” performance.
But of course, the USSR wanted to take it off the edge.
The Subjects
The development of the gas was rushed, the focus was to start human trials of the gas as soon as possible, putting lives of the test subjects at risk because their lives weren’t a matter of concern.
It was not hard to find test subjects amidst a war.
Five Prisoners of the war were selected and falsely promised their freedom if they managed to stay awake for a month with the gas’s assist.
The Experiment
The five prisoners were put in a sealed room with vents that gushed the gas and oxygen in. There were five single beds for each of them, a cupboard full of books, a common toilet, and a one-way glass to allow the subjects to talk to the researchers.
The subjects were told the gas wouldn’t do any physical harm to them, surprisingly they were right. The gas didn’t do any physical harm to the subjects, it worked perfectly as it was supposed to be. It made it impossible for them to fall asleep. Perhaps, it was this fact alone that turned them into “monsters”.
The Observations
Initial days went by as expected the subjects weren’t drained or sleepy. They spent their time talking to each other and the researchers through the one-way mirror.
The first noticeable difference was around Day 3. When researchers began to notice how their conversations got darker and darker every day. they began to talk about the horrible sights they have witnessed in their time of duty and the desperate measures they had to take to survive.
In the next couple of days, the subject went completely quiet. They cut off all communications with the researchers and stopped conversing with each other too.
On Day 9, one subject started screaming and running through the chamber uncontrollably what is even more surprising is the other subject had no response to his screaming. When the researchers were trying to look inside from the mirror, the others stood up and covered the mirror. They, torn pages from the books and stuck it on the mirror with blood and their feces.
The subject continued screaming for hours until finally his vocal cords burst and he started squeaking like a toy in a high pitched sound.
The next few days went by with researchers being blind, the intercom was quiet too. The subjects were completely silent.
On Day 15, the researchers cut off the gas supply and opened the chamber to look inside. They went inside to have a look where they found the subject, who was screaming, dead. His body opened up and internal organs lying open. Others had performed severe mutilation (causing injury to a body part so it is permanently disabled or disfigured)and self-cannibalism (eating themselves). They blocked the drain from the flesh which allowed 4 inches of blood and water to accumulate in the chamber.
The researchers decided to abandon the experiment. The subjects begged the researchers to continue the research and let them stay under the influence of the gas. When guards used force to take the subjects out of the chamber, the subjects showed extreme strength. They ripped the flesh off the guards’ body with their bare hands. One guard was murdered and another was severely injured.
Eventually, when they were taken out, they showed superhuman resistance to drugs and sedatives. The doctors had to perform surgery on the subjects, stitching their self-inflicted wounds, while they were conscious and smiling. A nurse reported one of the subjects tried to say something, when she moved forward to listen, the subject whispered “keep digging”. It was also found that if any subject who falls asleep, died instantly.
After they were somewhat treated for their severe injuries the subjects were prepared to be locked in the gas chamber again by the orders of Military Officials.
The EKG monitors showed short recurring moments of brain death in the subjects. Before the chamber was sealed another subject falls asleep and dies.
The military officials then ordered the remaining two subjects to be locked in with the three other researchers, to judge their behavior with civilians. Out of the two subjects, only one could speak by now.
One of the researchers refused to be locked up in the chamber with monsters who, according to him, were no longer “people”.
He drew his gun and shot the commander, and the mute subject killing both. The other personnel instantly fled the room.
The terrified researchers then desperately asked the subject what he was, in which the subject smiled and identified himself along with his other fallen subjects as the inherent evil that is trapped inside the human body and is kept at check by the sleep cycle. The researcher stood there terrified for a moment, then shot the subject, and with his dying breath he sighed “so….nearly…free..”
Is it just another speculation?
Some inconsistencies and facts about the text violate science. It is pretty easy to mark this story as another speculation, in it’s purest forms. But, it is reasonably possible that this crazy experiment did happen and there were shocking results too. So the military decided to hide it. But the truth got out and spiced up by word of mouth, which gave us this, a story no less than a horror film.
There is no smoke without fire.
I believe that the story must hold some truth to it. Sleep is an integral part of human life and chronic sleep deprivation does lead to depression & anxiety, memory loss, faulty brain function, and more. Maybe sleep deprivation lining up with the crazy gas was not the best of experiments the Russians ever did (well, add that to the list) so they hid it. But truth always manages to escape, so what we have as “The Russian Sleep Experiment” might be elements of the whole, less scary but still inhumane truth.
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